Executive leader and board member Wilma Wallace joins Roy to discuss her experience recruiting and mentoring leadership teams at Gap and REI during her extensive career at both legacy brands. After spending over 20 years in senior roles at Gap, Wilma served as Chief Diversity and Social Impact Officer, as well as Chief Legal Officer at REI. In 2024, she retired to focus on impacting change, particularly from an equity, access, and justice perspective, on several boards. Her work centers social impact, environmental justice, and human rights in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Wilma and Roy discuss accounting for and addressing changing levels of trust across organizations, internal succession planning versus seeking external candidates, the link between alignment of purpose and successful performance in leadership teams, and much more.     

Highlights from our conversation include:

• How Wilma evaluates candidates’ leadership abilities (4:18)
• Creating an environment that fosters high potential future leaders (6:48)
• Recruiting external talent (8:26)
• Leadership assessment practices at Gap & REI (11:08)
• Ensuring that an organization’s culture stays dynamic and resilient (14:01)
• Leading and hiring through periods of growth and change (17:35)
• Ways in which leaders should be vetting culture and values before taking on new leadership roles (20:30)
• What gives Wilma hope about the next generation of leaders (23:00)

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